Judge gives city six months to approve gun shop rules

January 14, 2014|By John Byrne | Clout Street

(Tribune illustration)

A federal judge today granted the City of Chicago a six-month delay in allowing gun stores to open in the city so that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration can set up rules and regulations to restrict where the new firearms sellers can hang their shingles.

The extension was expected after Emanuel said last week that he wouldn't fight U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang's order in court because he wasn't interested in in "litigation for the purpose of litigation." The city has suffered a series of legal setbacks in recent years while fighting in court to reverse rulings favoring firearms advocates.

Chang today agreed to give the city time to put together the regulations. He issued his ruling from the bench today at the Dirksen Federal Building.

The mayor has not offer much in the way of specifics about what he hopes to achieve with the gun sales rules other than saying last week the stores should "obviously be away from schools and areas like that."

Emanuel said last week he had instructed the city Law Department "to work with public safety experts and community leaders to create a comprehensive set of restrictions on the sale of firearms to ensure that illegal guns don't find their way into the hands of criminals or straw purchasers."